Zen and the art of trackstanding

Greg T

Siblings.

I found my karma deeply troubled when trying to trackstand by my bike (and mind) constantly edging forward. I couldn't stop my forwards creeping.

However, I have had a moment of enlightenment.

Do not think if putting weight onto the back "non chocolate" foot.

Instead think of taking the weight off your front "chocolate foot" and "floating".

This is my gift to you.

linsen

hmm I like your thinking. WTF however is a chocolate foot?

Greg T

linsen wrote:

hmm I like your thinking. WTF however is a chocolate foot?

http://www.teamestrogen.com/content.ep?file=asa_trackstand

This article was posted by another journeyman on the road to inner truth recently.

laughingboy

Greg T wrote:

linsen wrote:

hmm I like your thinking. WTF however is a chocolate foot?

http://www.teamestrogen.com/content.ep?file=asa_trackstand

This article was posted by another journeyman on the road to inner truth recently.

Greg T, you have disappointed me. Your post was typically pithy and enjoyable, but...

Firstly, in your first post you passed off others' work as your own. You bounder!

Secondly, and pedantically, the 'journeyman' in question was in fact a woman. So, that would make her a journeywoman - except for the fact that a journeyman isn't someone who, as you implied, is on a journey; it is someone who is good with their hands. Not that there's anything worng with a woman who is good with her hands, you understand...

But most of all , you leave me in a wretched position. I am now able to identify my chocolate foot - mon pied de chocolat (why does French sound better in matters of chocolate?) - but I still have no idea why it is so called.

Redeem yourself, man. Find out why. Please.

spasypaddy

chocolate foot is similar to chocolate wrists in football.

When a goalkeeper has chocolate wrists it means they are weak and loose.

laughingboy

I've just wasted some expendable time exploring the web, and it does seem to be Hans Rey's term. He calls one's favourite foot, the chocolate foot.

Now I just need to know:

Who the dickens is Hans Rey?
And does even Mr Rey know why it's a chocolate foot?

On second thoughts, life is too short.

SlightlyFuzzy

Hi,

[I'm a newbie here btw, so that should be read as "Hi all"!]

Hans 'no way' Ray is, I believe, a bit of a cycling legend in 'trials' riding and more recently MTB 'adventure' riding - saw pics of him navigating his way around paddy field terraces on the side of a mountain. Scary.
I remember reading about him in MTBUK in the 90's. Rides for GT and has a custom Zaskar-based bike I think.
Chocolate foot? Nope, don't remember reading about that in the mag!

Is it just me that seems to do funny things with the handlebars when attempting trackstands? Is it that I am not employing non-chocolate foot theory correctly?! :?

SF

whyamihere

Hmmm. I can trackstand perfectly stationary. I'm on a freewheel too. It's easy.

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

Siblings.

I found my karma deeply troubled when trying to trackstand by my bike (and mind) constantly edging forward. I couldn't stop my forwards creeping.

However, I have had a moment of enlightenment.

Do not think if putting weight onto the back "non chocolate" foot.

Instead think of taking the weight off your front "chocolate foot" and "floating".

This is my gift to you.

Ahhhhhhh manna from the heavens... I will try it on friday. Or maybe tomorrow on my Velib... If it doesn't work I will hold you personally responsible for my resultant humiliation...

whyamihere wrote:

Hmmm. I can trackstand perfectly stationary. I'm on a freewheel too. It's easy.

No you can't. Shut up shut up shut up.

whyamihere

lost_in_thought wrote:

whyamihere wrote:

Hmmm. I can trackstand perfectly stationary. I'm on a freewheel too. It's easy.

No you can't. Shut up shut up shut up.

Yeah I can.

lost_in_thought

No, no you can't. I flatly refuse to believe you in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Yes, I am religious. A creationist? How did you know?

Furthermore, are you 13?? :shock:

whyamihere

Heh, no. I was 17 when that was taken a few years ago.

laughingboy

whyamihere wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

whyamihere wrote:

Hmmm. I can trackstand perfectly stationary. I'm on a freewheel too. It's easy.

No you can't. Shut up shut up shut up.

Yeah I can.

Yeh, but that's, like, a photo. You are bound to appear stationary!

P.S. - I like the 'it's so easy I can do it with a hand tied behind my head' stylee

greg66_tri_v2.0

You know what? I know someone who has a camera that can shoot at 1/10000 of a sec. It doesn't mean I can trackstand.
:twisted:

Top scientists have shown in internationally recognised double blind tests that track standing makes you shorter by five inches, bald, walk with a limp and more likely to develop moobs before you are 30.

Remember kids, it's not big, and it's not clever.

whyamihere

My hand's covering the bald patch. Always listen to Greg66 kids, the tells the truth!

lost_in_thought

laughingboy wrote:

Yeh, but that's, like, a photo. You are bound to appear stationary!

Damn it. I hadn't even thought of that...

Gullible? Why yes I am!

don_don

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg T wrote:

Siblings.

I found my karma deeply troubled when trying to trackstand by my bike (and mind) constantly edging forward. I couldn't stop my forwards creeping.

However, I have had a moment of enlightenment.

Do not think if putting weight onto the back "non chocolate" foot.

Instead think of taking the weight off your front "chocolate foot" and "floating".

This is my gift to you.

Ahhhhhhh manna from the heavens... I will try it on friday. Or maybe tomorrow on my Velib... If it doesn't work I will hold you personally responsible for my resultant humiliation...

Surprised LiT, since I thought it was you that gave us this whole 'chocolate foot' article in the first place :?

Which reminds me, IIRC the whole thing ended up in a discussion about toe-sucking, which seemed to make the phrase all the more apt :shock:

don_don

lost_in_thought wrote:

laughingboy wrote:

Yeh, but that's, like, a photo. You are bound to appear stationary!

Damn it. I hadn't even thought of that...

Gullible? Why yes I am!

Doh!

lost_in_thought

don_don wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg T wrote:

Siblings.

I found my karma deeply troubled when trying to trackstand by my bike (and mind) constantly edging forward. I couldn't stop my forwards creeping.

However, I have had a moment of enlightenment.

Do not think if putting weight onto the back "non chocolate" foot.

Instead think of taking the weight off your front "chocolate foot" and "floating".

This is my gift to you.

Ahhhhhhh manna from the heavens... I will try it on friday. Or maybe tomorrow on my Velib... If it doesn't work I will hold you personally responsible for my resultant humiliation...

Surprised LiT, since I thought it was you that gave us this whole 'chocolate foot' article in the first place :?

Which reminds me, IIRC the whole thing ended up in a discussion about toe-sucking, which seemed to make the phrase all the more apt :shock:

DON'T mention the toes again... you'll set them off...

And yeah, but I haven't really mastered it yet... as in still can't do it. :oops:

I'm now resorting to getting my brother to teach me...

don_don

You're right.

Listen everybody, don't start on about toe-sucking again, OK?

greg66_tri_v2.0

Eh? Cos LiT can't toe suck yet? But she's getting her brother to help her? :shock: :shock: :shock:

Ye Gods. It really is a jungle out there...

lost_in_thought

Greg66 wrote:

Eh? Cos LiT can't toe suck yet? But she's getting her brother to help her? :shock: :shock: :shock:

Ye Gods. It really is a jungle out there...

Ahhhhhhh FFS. Must be more clear...

laughingboy

Much better avatar, Dave.

Maybe now don_don will stop flirting with you.

Greg T

whyamihere wrote:

Hmmm. I can trackstand perfectly stationary. I'm on a freewheel too. It's easy.



Yeah I can.

But I can't talk to girls and get all lumpy watching Cheryl Cole on X factor.


If you share your trackstanding tips with us we'll tell you what its like to do "it"

Feltup

So there I was trackstanding at the lights whilst texting Keira when Cheryl walked past and said "morning sexy". I then found out what Greg T meant about going all lumpy and the effects it has on your centre of balance.

Remember people trackstanding near Cheryl is not big and it's not clever.

Bassjunkieuk

I am also learning the art of the trackstand. It's an amazing feeling when you find your centre and balance motionless. I'm finding at the moment I'm still needing to develop a small amount of back n forth (a few inches at most) to keep upright if I start to move. I've also found that my balance point is with me standing up and leaning over the bars - guess it's all a matter of each to their own there!

To complicate things a bit I'm also doing this on a geared road bike, which has lead to a few nice changes. As the gearing I'm in when I pull up for the TS is quite important in that I need a high enough gear to allow for small pedal movements to produce forward motion, but not to high that I can't actually fly off from said stop! Consequently I'm now stopping in a gear a full 20" bigger then what I used to! (Sadly I have the Sheldon Brown GI table on my top tube so I know when to MTFU :twisted: ) At present it's my 3rd smallest ring and middle chainring which is about 74".......

I'm confident now that come summer I'll be holding perfectly motionless trackies all across town and have other cyclist turn green with envy (much like I do when I see a courier doing them now!)

Sea_Green_Incorruptible

whyamihere wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

whyamihere wrote:

Hmmm. I can trackstand perfectly stationary. I'm on a freewheel too. It's easy.

No you can't. Shut up shut up shut up.

Yeah I can.

Impessed as I am whyamihere... does it really count when you do it on a MTB? Afterall, you can just sit on your big sqashy tyres can't you and let them do the work for you?

cee

laughingboy wrote:

I've just wasted some expendable time exploring the web, and it does seem to be Hans Rey's term. He calls one's favourite foot, the chocolate foot.

Now I just need to know:

Who the dickens is Hans Rey?
And does even Mr Rey know why it's a chocolate foot?

On second thoughts, life is too short.

how very dare you!!! Hans Rey is a legend (for those who ride bicycles offroad anyway).

I call it a result when my trackstands last 10 seconds. Top result is when the lights change to green within those 10 seconds so astounded viewers have the belief I could (track)stand there all day!

Have seen some folks at lights for a ridiculous length of time.....not that I am envious :evil:

DonDaddyD

Did someone mention toesucking!!! :P

Seriously, trackstanding... awfully hard! I can barely stop and hold on to the railings at traffic lights without clipping out.

Surely trackstanding is easier on a bike with wide tyres (like a Mountation bike) and 26'' wheels than compared to a Road bike?

mats

If it was a chocolate biscuit foot would it be a club?

ride_whenever

DonDaddyD wrote:

Did someone mention toesucking!!! :P

Seriously, trackstanding... awfully hard! I can barely stop and hold on to the railings at traffic lights without clipping out.

Surely trackstanding is easier on a bike with wide tyres (like a Mountation bike) and 26'' wheels than compared to a Road bike?

yes it is, but mainly because the frame is smaller and you're less stretched out. I find trackstanding on my GF bike (that is much too small for me) is far easier than on my road bike, and about the same as on my mtbs